8 weeks old!

This day, 8 weeks ago, I was holding my precious baby boy for the first time!  It is so hard to believe that it was only 8 weeks ago, I feel like I have loved him forever!!!  It is such an amazing (also exhausting) experience and no one can quite explain it to you, you just have to experience it for yourself. 

For the record, Gavin has started consuming 6 ounces (2 milk, 4 formula) at 5 am, 8am, 11am, 2 pm, 5pm and 8 pm.  He also just started sleeping thru the night 2 days ago which happened to correspond to his moving up from 5 to 6 ounces.

He is starting to smile quite a bit and is really developing quite a personality.  He still takes after me in the temper department, but he doesn't show it usually unless he is hungry or dirty.  He is for the most part the most content and happy baby, we are so incredibly blessed!

He still loves to be swaddled and to be nice and toasty warm.  The easiest way to get him to calm down when he gets mad is to take him outside, he usually stops crying instantly.  Baths are not his favorite, he doesn't mind the water, that is until, Clay starts to rinse the soap out of his hair.  Then the screaming begins :).  He can hold his neck up by himself for a little while but tires out pretty quick.  We tried to put him in his Bumbo seat, but he is still a little small for it.  His vision gets better and better everyday it seems like.  We notice him looking/staring at things that are farther and farther from him all the time. 

Below are some cute pictures I took over the weekend. 

From 2010-07-05

This is a fat happy baby!  Notice the bulging of his buttons :-)

From 2010-07-06

From 2010-07-06

First Vacation/Trip

We decided to venture out on our first trip with Gavin for the 4th of July.  We made the same trip that we usually do, to our friends lake house at Lake Sinclair.  We picked him up early from school on Friday and headed up there.  What should have been about a 3 - 3.5 hour drive ended up being a 4.5 hour drive due to a detour by Clay to look at a piece of property outside of Fitzgerald and having to stop at a gas station and feed Gav.

From 2010-07-02

We had a delicious meal at The Brick, and introduced Gavin to everyone he hadn't met yet.  Luckily our friends whose house we stayed at have a 2 1/2 yr old who doesn't sleep in his room and they hadn't moved the crib out of the nursery yet but had added bunk beds.  So all three of us stayed in the same room which was interesting but worked out fine.  Gavin slept so good which was such an answered prayer.

Saturday morning we got up and had breakfast and got dressed for the day.

From 2010-07-03

Our friends Ashley and Wes lent us this wonderful portable bed type thing that you can use outside, it has a net and shade to keep the baby cool and comfortable

From 2010-07-03

From 2010-07-03

Next we got Gavin suited up in a life jacket so we could go to the bait store and buy "snakes" for Jackson our friend's son to fish with.  Below are some pictures of Gavin's first ride on the boat.

From 2010-07-03

From 2010-07-03

From 2010-07-03

Trying to shield him from all the wind!

From 2010-07-03

We had so much fun playing at the lake and catching up with some of our very best friends.  Gavin was so good the entire weekend, it was easy to forget he was even there because he was so content and quite.  He got lots of love from all of his "aunts" and "uncles" and found a new friend in his "cousin" Jackson.

From 2010-07-04

From 2010-07-04

From 2010-07-04

Gavin trying to roll over

In these videos poor Gavin is trying SO hard to get his horsey!  So cute!!

Just click on the picture and it will open it up in Picasa.

From 2010-07-05

From 2010-07-05

Sleeping thru the night!!!

I almost hate to post this, afraid I might jinx us :-).  Last night Gavin slept from 8 until 5:15 this morning!!  We moved him up to six ounces every three hours yesterday and I guess that is what did it!  I freaked out when I woke up this morning, I made Clay rush in there and make sure my baby was still alive :-).

Weeks 5 - 7

I am a horrible blogger :-).  These past weeks have flown by and Gavin seems to be getting bigger every single day!  He will actually be 8 weeks old tomorrow, I can't believe it. 

In the past 4 weeks Gavin has seen his uncle David off to Houston for his first big boy job.  Has celebrated his 1 month birthday.

Has gotten lots of snuggles from his Paw Paw

Hung out with his Me-me and her crazy hair :-)

looks like he is trying to say "Do you see this lady's hair??" 

Gavin has also been having some very serious discussions with his Daddy.  This one happened to be on Clay's 1st Father's Day.  I think Gav was trying to tell him how much he loved him and what a wonderful Daddy he was!

And last but definitely not least, he started "school". 

This day was definitely harder on me than it was on him.  I was SO depressed the 3 days before hand.  I don't think I did a thing all day except for hold him and pray asking God for strength and guidance.  We, mostly Clay, had decided that taking him on the Thursday after he turned six weeks was the best idea instead of waiting until the following Monday.  And turns out it was a wonderful idea, it was so nice to only have to be away from him those two days instead of having to go a whole week.  It really eased me into the whole thing.  That and all the thousands of prayers from me and everyone else for my emotional well being.  All in all it was a fairly painless process.  He seems to be loving school and everyone at school seems to be loving him.  He is such a happy baby as long as he is not hungry :-).  We are so incredibly blessed.

Speaking of his eating habits.  He also moved up to 5 ounces every three hours during this time and he also started getting formula supplements.  My milk flow just couldn't keep up with him once I started pumping and quit nursing. 

He is growing like a little weed, we can barely keep up!

I will post later about his first vacation for the 4th of July

First Bath Video

4 weeks old!

I can not believe that Gavin turned 4 weeks old yesterday!  The time has just flown by!  He is getting bigger and bigger everyday and eats like a horse :-).  He loves to snuggle and has his Daddy wrapped around his little finger.  He basically sleeps on Clay's chest between his 5 pm feeding and his 8 pm feeding and if Clay tries to put him down so he can do things like eat dinner, then Gavin screams bloody murder.  He has quite a set of vocal cords.  Sometimes when he is super peeved, any outsider that could hear him would think we were slowly cutting off an arm or leg.  In the past couple of days he has perfected the silent scream that always comes right before the most unbelievable un-silent screaming :-).  It usually makes me laugh because normally he does this when one of us is trying to change his diaper, something he truly hates most of the time.  I honestly can't imagine what is so terrible about getting out of a nasty diaper into a nice and clean one, but apparently I am missing something :-). 

His feeding schedule has moved to every 3 hours which makes errands and other necessities a whole lot easier.  He has also, just in the past 3 days started getting SO close to sleeping straight from his 11 pm feeding to his 5 am feeding!  I know to those without children might seem trivial but I honestly felt like I had one the lottery the first morning when I didn't wake up until 4:30!  We have taken millions more pictures but Clay has the camera with him for work right now so I can't upload them.  There are a couple of cute videos of his first bath last week and other just random pictures. 

It is so hard to believe that in two weeks I will be back at work.  I could never have imagined that I would be this sad about it.  I know in my heart that it would be super hard for me to be a stay at home mom, but I am REALLY going to miss him!  Too bad I can't take him with me :-)